Donors split with Mitt on gay marriage

Mitt Romney’s opposition to gay marriage, which helped endear him to conservative activists during the dog days of the presidential primary, puts him at odds with three of his most prominent donors, all of whom helped fund a successful effort to legalize same-sex nuptials in New York last year.

Singer, the intensely-private head of Elliott Associates, has been especially active in donating to groups aimed at legalizing gay marriage in different states over the last five years, concurrent with his rise as one of the Republican party’s mot prominent bundlers and donors to party committees. According to a recent New York Times story, Singer has donated $8 million to pro-gay marriage efforts since 2007.

He’s also helped raise more than $1 million for Romney’s campaign, as well as donated another $1 million to the super PAC supporting the all-but-assured Republican nominee.

The New York moneymen and some other Republican movers-and-shakers — such as former George W. Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, who came out two years ago and is now raising money from a broad swath of donors to push for gay marriage but who hasn’t made a presidential campaign endorsement — are at odds with Romney, who signed a pledge proffered by the conservative National Organization for Marriage promising to, among other things, support “sending a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification.”

Officials at NOM endorsed Romney Wednesday morning, within hours of Rick Santorum’s departure from the race. And while both political sides agree that the general election will most likely hinge almost exclusively on the economy, Romney’s position on gay marriage puts him in a difficult spot between some key donors and his party’s base.

It also puts Romney at odds with where the general electorate has been heading on the issue — in 2004, a majority of the country did not want to see gay marriage legalized. But in a Washington Post/ABC News poll last month, 52 percent of voters said it should be legal, while 43 percent said it should be illegal. Once seen as strictly a side issue, gay marriage has become much more central to the political conversation over the last few years.

Donors, as one Republican insider put it, are “often a reflection of where the public attitudes are,” if not indicative of the opinions of the base of either party.

Romney’s divide from some of his donors could become a point of tension if President Barack Obama vocalizes support for same-sex marriage, as a number of gay activists are urging him to do before the November election. Right now, Romney and Obama both oppose gay marriage; the president has said his views are “evolving,”

“Mitt Romney is where President Obama is on this issue,” a Republican backer of the likely nominee said.